


from the ashes

by someawkwardprose



Series: Gifts [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: But He Gets Better, Hurt Tony Stark, M/M, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sokovia Accords, Tony Building Himself Back Up From Rock Bottom, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 18:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9505712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someawkwardprose/pseuds/someawkwardprose
Summary: Tony repeats them like a mantra.You're a better man than that.He's determined to make those words ring true.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FigureSk8Girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FigureSk8Girl/gifts).



> for my [love](http://prooftonystarkhasaheart.tumblr.com/), I'm sorry this is so late 
> 
> okay, this has quite a bit of Steve bashing, be warned. Tony is coming from a bad place, so he's not really feeling the love. there's a brief hint of alcoholism but writing about it didn't trigger me, so I didn't think I needed the tag. 
> 
> literally just 1632 words of Tony rebuilding post cacw
> 
> enjoy :)

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Tony stares at the King in disbelief. T’Challa sets his jaw, and shakes his head.

“I understand how difficult this must be for you, Dr. Stark,” He stands straight backed, face blank. “But you must understand that this package is not safe in Wakanda. Not anymore.”

Tony’s hands are shaking, but he keeps his face calm, and sneers at the King.

“And what makes you think it would be safer with me? That I won’t just destroy it, and its contents?”

“Because you are a better man than that, Anthony.”

* * *

 

_Steve telling him he’s sorry for misjudging him, as Tony tries to forget the feeling of dying alone-_

_Steve kissing him, murmuring I love you’s, while Tony builds something that would let them give up this life of constant danger-_

_Steve fighting him, and Tony can feel his worldview shattering because Steve knew-_

* * *

The words echo in Tony’s head, _You’re a better man than that._

It what he repeats to himself as he argues with the more vengeful representatives about the Accords. It’s the constant mantra in his brain when he scraps the registration act, glaring at old Thunderbolt Ross as he does so. _You’re a better man than that._ He takes his red pen and adds suggestions to amendments and corrects clauses and scores ideas out ruthlessly, into the early hours, before marching back into the UN meeting room.

_You’re better than that,_ he snarls to himself in the mirror as he prepares for his speech to the press. _Better than that,_ he mutters as he calls in favours from politicians. Tony asks Peter, asks the vigilante from Hell’s Kitchen, asks a few Inhumans Maria Hill suggests. He takes the proposal to Xavier’s school, lets the mutants have their say. He consults the inhabitants of the Baxter Building, and gets Richards involved.

Tony cuts down the more dangerous proposals with the efficiency of a man who has been hounded since birth to justify his work. He pulls strings in the old society circles, gains support from the elite. He makes nice with the German, British and French Reps, chats up the Chinese delegation, greases the palms of the Russian’s. He calls Pepper and throws the might of Stark Industries and all of its investors behind him.

_You’re a better man than that._

* * *

_Steve leans over him, peppering his face with kisses, while Tony laughs and tries to shove him off-_

_Steve avoiding his eyes from across the room, his face a picture of disappointment, and Tony feels the distance between them like a physical ache in his heart-_

_Steve leans over him, shield poised, and Tony raises his hands but he already knows he won’t use the repulsors and oh god, Steve’s going to kill him-_

* * *

 

Tony grins a sharklike smile as the Raft - the thing he and Richards built for _criminals,_ not Tony’s friends teammates, is turned into scrap. Everett Ross raises an eyebrow, and Tony nods at the man’s namesake. Poor Thaddeus looks like he’s going to burst a blood vessel, or take a swing, and Tony almost wishes he would, but he doesn’t really because he doesn’t need that right now. _._ The Secretary’s daughter, Betty, smiles at him from across the room, and Tony thinks Bruce might be proud.

Rhodey uses the braces to stand up and hug him. Pepper and he become a united front for the press. Some lawyer called Matt Murdoch calls him and gives him some legalese by which he can push for a certain amount of autonomy for the New Avengers Initiative, protect some of the individual ‘heroes’. A private investigator gives Tony dirt on some of the representatives who were less willing to compromise, and Tony isn’t usually one to support blackmail, but the Abomination is one hell of a thing to hold over Thaddeus, even if he won’t use it.

Magneto and the brotherhood condemn him, and Tony understands why, but Xavier grips his wrist and tells him they’re doing the right thing. Tony opens a bottle of scotch before pouring the entire thing down the drain. FRIDAY tells him he’s been awake for 78 hours and Tony knows he has to be awake enough tomorrow to shout down the snarling masses, so he swallow two pills and promises not to make it a habit.

The September Foundation funds a young woman looking into ways to reverse brainwashing, and Tony gives her access to BARF and refuses to look at the corner of his workshop lest he break his promise to himself. _You’re better than that._

* * *

 

_Steve holds him as he cries on the anniversary-_

_Steve yells at Tony because_ Partners don’t lie to each other _!_

_Steve’s denial lies heavy in the air as Tony takes a swing-_

* * *

 

Tony visits his parents grave. He leaves a bunch of white lilies on his mother’s headstone and promises he won’t wait this long to visit her again. Tony tells May about Peter, because Peter was still just a kid, and he and May convince Peter to wait until he’s eighteen (or until the next big disaster) and promises that he can keep training with the Avengers, because Tony can’t have another young man’s death on his shoulders. Tony schmoozes with the best and brightest of the world’s heroes, and gets them all to sign, because they need oversight and one man can’t make decisions for the rest of the population.

Tony pays T’Challa back for the hunk of Vibranium his father stole. He makes his peace with the shield and refuses to smelt it to spite either his father or Steve’s memory. Tony dumps it in the corner of things he refuses to see. He kisses the ass of every supportive member of the UN Security Council and gets all of the veto holders on side.

Tony gets the best lawyers money can buy to plead the case of the so-called ‘Team Cap’. He meets Cassie Lang and makes her a college fund that will pay for her to go wherever the hell she pleased. He give Laura Barton a job and lends her a lawyer who specialised in divorce cases. Lila and Nate call him Uncle Tony. Cooper calls him asshole.

Tony removes the black ring box from his dresser, and lets Rhodey rub his shoulders as he cries. Pepper puts the box in the ever growing pile of things Tony won’t look at, with a familiar leather jacket and a scuffed pair of boots that used to rest beside Tony’s expensive Tom Fords. Tony gives her a phone and a note and tells her to destroy it. His best friends give him matching razor sharp smiles, and Tony finally lets go of his past.

* * *

 

_Steve entwines their fingers, and Tony is so in love with this man-_

_Steve sketches, and from the stiff way he holds his shoulders, Tony knows he’s mad-_

_Steve leaves him, cold and alone with no way to contact anyone for help, and Tony almost wishes his lover had killed him instead of leaving him for dead-_

* * *

 

“Mr Stark, Mr Stark!” The reporters swarm around him, and Tony is feeling more than a little claustrophobic, even as Happy shoves them out of the way.

He’s almost inside when he hears the words he’s been dreading since T’Challa called him.

“Mr Stark, how do you feel about the trials of your teammates?”

His _ex-teammates,_ some petty part of Tony wants to point out, but he won’t. He just flashes a grin at the assembled mob before ducking through the door.

Tony is safely ensconced in his workshop before he lets out the breath he’s been holding. So. Steve and the others were finally going to court. Tony wishes he felt something - maybe smug, maybe angry, or perhaps even sad, because they’d been _friends_ once upon a time. But all he can feel is an awkward sort of apathy, like someone had taken a melon scoop and hollowed him out.

He thinks he deserves a drink, but he knows better than to give into temptation.

The King of Wakanda had warned him when he and Tony had spoken. The ex-Avengers would have to turn themselves in eventually, once things had cooled down a little. He couldn’t risk his country by hiding fugitives. He could only hope the jury would listen to “Team Cap”.

It was funny how they waited for Tony to do all the work. How they waited until Tony had carved the new Accords out of his bones, written them in the blood the public still thirsted for. How they waited until Tony had gave them a platform to defend what they had did to him, to his family.

Whatever, Tony wasn’t bitter. He liked to think he was better than that.

Still, he hoped they weren’t punished too harshly. Wanda and Sam and Lang, at least, thought they were doing the right thing. Hell, despite Clint’s dig at Rhodey, Tony didn’t want him too messed up. Laura deserved to get her shot at him. But Rogers, well.   _Sometimes my teammates lie to me._ Tony snorted. _Yeah, I know the feeling._

Tony bites his lip, and tastes blood. He will never forgive Steve, he thinks. Tony had put all of his trust into one man, who in turned, proved Tony’s trust issues were reasonable. There a box with Steve’s name on it, in Tony’s head, beside the names Howard, Tiberius and Obadiah. Tony shuts all of his feelings about Steve inside it, and swears that he’ll forget.

Tony looks at the pile in the corner, all of the things Tony refused to destroy. He salutes it with his bottle of water.

  
“This is all your fault.” He tells the man in the cryochamber. The damn bastard isn’t awake to hear it.

**Author's Note:**

> as usual, yell at me if there's something I missed while editing!


End file.
